I haven't been able to get you guys any data yet, but I will! Any deadlines?

Hey there Chilly. Don't stress buddy, you got some time. I was hoping to get the majority of the results in by mid-April, so you should be just fine. i'm sure more will trickle in after that too. I understand people have lives to live, hardware they're waiting for or a host of other things that take up their time. this is supposed to be a bit more casual, fun and informative. I'm still waiting to see the results from some of the big dogs here.

Somebody asked why we used the amount of paste that we do and not the grain sized that other manufacturers use. I am not one to second guess my competitors application recommendations but when doing an in house study on grease failure I observed that when a compound is compressed it spreads in a perfect circle with a smooth line at the edge.

It does reach a point where there is not enough compound to push the grease out evenly it then forms little extensions that fold back in or join with other little extensions to form little pockets of air and is what I call the Airmixing Zone and is noted as a halo of radial lighter and darker areas that I have outlined below.

The darker areas contain little air pockets that expand under heat and pressure and causes early failure of the mount Often in just a few weeks temps can rise 3-4 C under stress.

I can not say this works for all compounds but I have yet not seen one that does not exhibit it.

The example below was a competition compound used by many in this results thread. I took 2 Glass slides a copper simulated IHS. I applied an approximate "grain of rice" and then clamped the simulated IHS between the 2 slides with 4 binder clips (approximately 50-60lbs) I then placed it in an oven @ 100C for a couple of hours to stress it a bit. Most of these compounds are rated 150C or higher so this was at the lower range of what you commonly see in a test like this and not overdone.

You can see in the second illustration where a few of the air bubbles have expanded, pushed aside the grease. If I had done a more extensive test these bubbles would continue to expand and migrate to join with other bubbles for a rather spectacular failure as noted on our website.

With ICD the amount prescribed is intended to spread just enough so it does not enter the airmixing zone. In the early giveaways I had the users spread with varying amounts and method the near universal concenus was the "pea" method for best performance which I then refined down to the 5.0-5.5 mm bead with subsequent testing.

Load temps are after an hour of prime95 8 threads small-fft. CPU is an i7 920 @ 3.8GHz, 1.35V. CPU Cooler is a Cooler Master V10.

With the Ceramique 2 of my cores were always ~5C higher than the other two. I had remounted a couple of times too. Now there is only ~ 1C difference, and this is with one mount. I can say I am impressed.

The ic7 worked as specified the temps did drop; however, what I'm not impressed with is the application method, the way it spreads itself, and the thickness of it even when heated up. It reminds me of the thermal gum nvidia uses on it's vid cards. This stuff is like bubble gum imo and perhaps i should have boiled it in a pot for a few minutes. Also.. even after only an hours of use i had to twist the waterblock off to remove it... for those that can't twist their heat sink they could litterally pull the cpu straight out of the mounting position.... never a good thing. I would honestly like to know what this stuff looks like after 6-12 months or longer.

I know that artic silver and cheaper thermal compounds don't do this even 2 years later. I will possibly re-visit this stuff at a later date... i can see it being a good compound for remounting stock heatsink cooling on a vid card due to its stiffness.... however in all honesty it was the thickness of it that I really didn't like.